National News

High School Hate Crime Suspect Is Victim's Mom

by Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

(NEWSER) – A bizarre twist in the hate crime that caused a Massachusetts high school to end its football season early: Police now suspect the person who spray-painted racist graffiti on the home of 13-year-old Isaac Phillips was the boy's own mother, the Boston Globe reports. Andrea Brazier, who is white, was described as a "strong suspect" in the case after cops confiscated cans of spray paint during a search of the home she shares with husband Anthony Phillips, who is black. Investigators say most of the leads they have followed in the case have led back to the house—and Phillips has given conflicting explanations of where the aerosol cans police spotted in a fire pit came from.